Senator Robinhood “Robin” Padilla on Tuesday urged the government to support the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu in securing the $14.9 billion award over Sabah.
In his first-ever privilege speech as a senator, Padilla asserted that claims of the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu over Sabah are valid through the decision of the Paris Arbitration Court.
“It is saddening that on our part, the government had the same response. It was a great negligence that we are allowing the sultanate to seek help from private organizations in their legal fight,” Padilla said.
“Despite the lack of support from the government, the claimants won their case in Madrid High Court in May 2020. The French Arbitration Court approved its decision — urging the Malaysia to pay over $14.9 billion to the heirs of the Sultanate,” he added.
Padilla insisted that the government should help the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu. He added that it should not be a source of rift between the Philippines and Malaysia.
“As a Filipino, it is only right that the government should help the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu in earnest just like it would help its citizens inside and outside of the country,” he said.
“The assistance of the government to its citizen is a mandate of the state, it should not be a source of any tension in the relation of the Philippines and Malaysia.”
Padilla also noted that the unpaid compensation from would be a great help for the government of the Philippines.
“Let us think about how big the benefits we could get from this decision — including the taxes from the arbitration award to the claimants,” he said.
“Why are we so quiet? Why does it seem like nobody is helping them? We are still in the middle of the pandemic; the prices of commodities continue to increase; the country’s unpaid loan is also ballooning — everything that could be a source of revenue to fund the services to the public is still a big contribution for every Filipino,” he added.
In March, the Paris Arbitration Court ordered the government of Malaysia to pay $14.92 billion to the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu.